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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27775045">I’m Only Seeing in Red Now</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/artimus13/pseuds/artimus13'>artimus13</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shuake Week 2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Blood, M/M, Shuake Week 2020, Soulmates, Suicide</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:49:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,439</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27775045</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/artimus13/pseuds/artimus13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shuake Week 2020</p><p>Day 7: Soulmates</p><p>Goro always thought soulmates made life easier. Well actually, perhaps he should rephrase that. He always thought that the lack of a soulmate made his life easier. </p><p>He probably didn’t even have a soulmate in the first place. A lot of people never actually found their soulmate in the first place. That didn’t mean that they didn’t actually have a soulmate, it just meant that they never made eye contact with the right person, but Goro figured the world wasn’t cruel enough to make some poor soul connected to his. </p><p>Goro should have learned by now that the world is a very cruel place. </p><p>or </p><p>In a world where when you make eye contact with your soulmate you start to see in color, Goro and Akira are soulmates.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shuake Week 2020 [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2018972</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I’m Only Seeing in Red Now</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If you did not, please read the warnings and make sure you are okay with them. Yes there is suicide, and I don’t want someone reading this fic not knowing that. </p><p>Also if there are other tags I should add please let me know.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Goro always thought soulmates made life easier. Well actually, perhaps he should rephrase that. He always thought that the lack of a soulmate made his life easier. </p><p>It was easier to disconnect from the world when it was just in black and white and everything blended together in a plain grey. He once thought it would be nice to see the whole world in beautiful colors like people who had soulmates described it to be, but he realized after he started working for Shido and when his mother died that that was a terrible dream to have. </p><p>He probably didn’t even have a soulmate in the first place. A lot of people never actually found their soulmate in the first place. That didn’t mean that they didn’t actually have a soulmate, it just meant that they never made eye contact with the right person, but Goro figured the world wasn’t cruel enough to make some poor soul connected to his. </p><p>Goro should have learned by now that the world is a very cruel place. </p><p>He had seen Kurusu before, like when he was following Kurusu’s group in the Metaverse from a distance, but he hadn’t realized that Kurusu was his soulmate until they made eye contact in the hallway of the TV station. </p><p>He had rounded the corner to enter into the conversation that Kurusu was having with the rest of his group, but right as he and Kurusu made eye contact, he just kept walking, however, he didn’t make it far without falling to the ground from the sudden brightness and burst of color that now existed in his world as a permanent resident. </p><p>This gave Kurusu (and his friends) the perfect opportunity to catch up to him and look at Goro who was still currently on the floor. </p><p>“C-Could you guys go on? I’ll meet you all at Dome Town later.” Goro heard Kurusu stutter out towards his friends. Goro couldn’t see it because his eyes were currently closed, but he heard the sound of a bag being transferred and then the sound of footsteps going off in the other direction. </p><p>“Hey Akechi, are you okay? Can you open your eyes without it hurting yet?” Goro heard Kurusu ask him the question, but he had a question of his own that he wanted to ask Kurusu. </p><p>“W-Why the hell aren’t you reacting like me? Doesn’t it hurt your eyes too?”</p><p>He heard Kurusu give a soft laugh, “I’ve actually been able to see in color for awhile now.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Yeah I don’t really get it either, but I guess I saw one of your interviews on TV and that counted as us making eye contact.”</p><p>“That h-hardly seems fair.”</p><p>“Hey, don’t complain to me. Go complain to the world.”</p><p>Well seeing as he already had a lengthy list of complaints for the world, Goro didn’t see the difference in adding one more. </p><p>“Anyway, I’ll ask again, but can you at least try to slowly open your eyes?”</p><p>Goro did try, and slowly but surely, he managed to fully open his eyes to (ironically) a pair of concerned grey eyes that switched to looking relieved as soon as he had fully opened his eyes. He looked around a bit more, and he saw the color of the wall that he didn’t know the name to, and he also saw all the different colors on the embroidery on his coat pocket. For a brief moment, Goro was actually happy that he found his soulmate and that he was able to see in color.</p><p>“Kurusu?”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Why is the world so damn bright?”</p><p>He heard his soulmate laugh at his remark.</p><p>“I think it’s just this hallway. Most of the times it doesn't hurt to keep your eyes open, and sometimes the world is dim and grey, but in a different way than it was before you found me.”</p><p>Goro sighed as he continued to take in his surroundings and his soulmate, “That all seems like a lot to learn. Would you mind teaching me about it all?”</p><p>He saw Kurusu smile, “How about we go to a cafe with great coffee, and I can teach you all about it and myself since, you know, we are soulmates and everything, and if you're feeling up to it, maybe you could teach me some more about yourself detective.”</p><p>“That sounds lovely, but I have to get to a briefing for tomorrow's show, and I believe you said that you were going somewhere with your friends.”</p><p>“Oh right, I kinda forgot about that, but let me at least get your number now so we can talk later.”</p><p>After quickly exchanging contact information, they both went on their ways, but the next day they met again since Kurusu’s class was still on a field trip, and Goro learned that Kurusu, along with being his soulmate, was also willing to challenge his opinions. Goro truly admired that about a person, so the world might have not been terribly off when it paired the two of them up to be soulmates.</p><p>Well, that was forgetting about the fact that Goro was most likely going to have to kill Kurusu someday to further his plan to get revenge on Shido, but that was later in life and not now.</p><p>Goro knew he was going to regret it later, but he foolishly allowed himself to spend time with Kurusu. Sometimes they would spend time at the cafe that Kurusu lived at, or they would go to some of Goro’s favorite places, but almost every time without fail, Kurusu would point out the colors of the world and talk to Goro about them.</p><p>Sometimes, Goro would let Kurusu be selfish (or maybe he was letting himself be selfish), and they would end up sneaking off into a dark alley in Kichijoji or go to the attic in LeBlanc to do some of the more intimate things that soulmates did.</p><p>“I think this drink might be the best one I’ve ordered.” Goro listened to Kurusu remark on one night in November while they were both sitting in the Jazz Club. He had asked Kurusu out, but he didn’t even know why he did. He was going to have to kill his <strike>soulmate</strike> Kurusu in four days, so why he had asked his victim out just to get closer to him was beyond Goro. Kurusu had accepted of course because Kurusu simply saw it as one of their normal outings because he would have no way of knowing what Goro was planning to do to him in the coming days.</p><p>“Oh, why is that? You seem to always say that about the drinks here.”</p><p>“Yeah, but look at the nice layered colors in this one. There’s green, yellow, and red, but none of them are blending into each other. They’re able to all keep their original color, but they can still stay next to each other .”</p><p>“I suppose you have a point, but tell me one thing Kurusu-“</p><p>“Akira.”</p><p>“Pardon?”</p><p>“I keep telling you to call me Akira, but either you don’t want to for some reason, or you’ve been forgetting to for the past three months.”</p><p>Goro did have his reasons for not listening to Kurusu’s request, and the best reason Goro had was to keep some amount of emotional distance between him and the other, but it wasn’t like it mattered any more for a couple reasons. It didn’t matter if they had distance in the first place because they were still soulmates, and that meant that eventually they would know everything about each other because they were supposed to complete one another. Though, it wasn’t like that time was going to come with Kurusu having to take a bullet through the head in the next few days.</p><p>“Well you still call me Akechi, so I don’t see what you're complaining about.”</p><p>He heard Kurusu sigh in response to his answer, but he gave no response beyond that. Goro had to laugh at that.</p><p>“What, you don’t have a witty response for that. Nothing sappy like, ‘Don’t worry Akechi, we’ll have plenty of time to get on first name bases since we’re soulmates, and we’ll have the rest of our lives together!’ Nothing optimistic like that tonight Kurusu?”</p><p>Instead of responding to him, Kurusu gave him a small, sad smile that almost made Goro ask him what was wrong, but Goro decided to ignore it in favor of switching conversation topics.</p><p>The four days came and passed in a blur. They stole Sae’s treasure, and Kurusu got caught all according to his plan. He walked down to the basement of the station they were keeping Kurusu at, and as he walked, all he could take notice of was the slate grey of the walls and the lack of life in the area. How symbolic.</p><p>He saw Sae, but they both didn’t really pay each other anymind. Sae had run out of time in her investigation, and Goro had a plan to carry out.</p><p>He reached the room that Kurusu was being held in, and he asked to be brought in with the guard, who he quickly stole the gun from put the silencer on, and shot the guard with his own gun.</p><p>Goro saw the bright red of the blood spill onto the floor, but he ignored it. He still had to get rid of one more person.</p><p>“G-Goro, you don’t actually want to do this do you?” Goro heard Akir- Kurusu stutter from where he was handcuffed in the center of the room.</p><p>“See that’s the thing <em> Kurusu</em>, I do want to do this. You’ve made my life more difficult by just existing. You’ve halted me from obtaining my goal, but now, I’ll be back on track once I dispose of you.”</p><p>“You’re just bluffing, you would never kill me. We’re soulmat-“</p><p>Goro let out a laugh at Kurusu’s reasoning, “What, just because the world and ‘fate’ determined we’re a perfect match I shouldn’t kill you? I expected more out of you. Can’t you come up with some better plea about why I shouldn’t kill you? Why should I throw away the plans that I’ve worked my whole life for just because we’re soulmates?”</p><p>“Because I can help you. We can take down whoever put you through this together, and then you get your revenge without getting more blood on your hands. Please Goro, we both know you’re smart enough to know that there’s a better way than this.”</p><p>Goro wasn’t really listening to him anymore. He couldn't listen to Kurusu anymore. If there was one person who could actually manage to make him throw away all his plans, it would be Kurusu. Probably another reason the world decided that they should be soulmates.</p><p>Goro brought the gun up between Kurusu’s eyes with his finger on the trigger.</p><p>“Here, I’ll be nice since we’re soulmates,” Goro said with a fake sweetness in his voice, “I’ll give you one more chance to convince me to throw away all I’ve worked for for years and to not put a bullet right through your skull.”</p><p>After all that had been said and was happening, Kurusu still didn’t look defeated. Even with a gun to his head, Kurusu still didn’t look like he showed any fear of Goro or fear for his life. </p><p>“I can’t say much that I haven’t already said, but just know I still don’t hate you. I know you said you hated me, but I don’t think that’s totally true. I don’t regret being your soulmate even now, and I never would have. I-”</p><p>Goro pulls the trigger. </p><p>He heard the gunshot ring through the tiny, bleak grey room, and he saw Kurusu’s expression barely change. Goro saw the red blood that was rolling down Kurusu’s face from where he had been shot, and he saw that red blossom when Kurusu’s head hit the table and the bright red blood splattered across the steel grey table standing out vividly to Goro’s eyes.</p><p>Red filled his vision.</p><p>Goro longs for the time when the world was simply black and white. </p><p>He looks at the gun in his hand that now has a bit of red on the end of its silencer, and he looks at Kurusu now dead on the table in front of him.</p><p>
  <em> I don’t regret being your soulmate even now, and I never would have. </em>
</p><p>Was that really true? Even after Goro had just killed the one person who actually <strike>loved</strike> respected him, had Kurusu still felt the same even as Goro was pulling the trigger. </p><p>
  <em> Please Goro, we both know you’re smart enough to know that there’s a better way than this. </em>
</p><p>He wasn’t sure if there was a better way than this, but Goro was sure of one thing now: all of this was pointless. He could never accomplish his revenge of killing his bastard father, and he was never going to be able to accomplish it in the first place. Shido had probably seen through him right from the start. It was an empty dream right from the moment that Goro had thought it up.</p><p>Goro again regarded the gun in his hand that he had used to kill Kurusu. </p><p>Was it worth it? Ending his miserable life now even after he had killed so many to try and reach an empty dream, and Shido still wins in the end, he thought it was almost poetic in a way when he brought the gun to his own head and remembered all of his victims that now had no purpose. Goro was going to die by Shido after the election anyway. What did it matter if he was moving the plans up and making sure he died by his own hands? He was making sure that that bastard didn’t control yet another area of his life. </p><p>Goro looked up with the gun still to his head to see the ever growing pool of crimson red still gathering around Kurusu’s collapsed body.</p><p>What did his plans matter anymore if the one person that Goro had actually loved was now dead by his hands. </p><p>Kurusu was right in the end wasn’t he? Goro hadn’t wanted to pull the trigger, but it was different now that he had the gun to his own head with Kurusu dead in front of him.</p><p>For the second time in the dull and grey concrete room, Goro decided to pull the trigger to the gun that was aimed at his own skull. For the second time in the concrete room, red filled his vision as he fell to the ground.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well that ends my Shuake week on a depressing note!</p><p>Again sorry that I’ve been late with posts for the prompts to anyone that’s been (I’m very sad with myself and how bad I was with keeping up with them).</p><p>Thanks for reading :)!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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